Being Thankful on the 4th of July

 On Friday, June 29th, we had a terrible storm that hit our farm and surrounding area.  We had some minor damage, but we are so thankful that no one was hurt.  Our barns are still standing and farm equipment is not damaged.

Dean always puts all of our farm machinery away, but left the combine and wagons out in the barnyard to be put away over the weekend.  Wheat harvest went great with no breakdowns.  Late Friday afternoon Dean's fire pager went off warning people that a storm with possible 80 mile per hour winds was coming our way.  I made sure everything outside that was loose was taken in and all doors and windows were shut.  My black lab was asked if she wanted to come in and she didn't hesitate following me into the house.  I unplugged everything that I could think of and checked all the windows in the house. Then the storm hit.  Rain poured in through our two window air conditioners faster than I could dry up with bath towels.  After a very short time, every towel I had in the house was wet.  I also had water coming in through my sewing room ceiling from a vented ridge cap on our roof.  This storm seemed to last over 30 minutes.  The damage is minor and things are drying out.

(This wagon had the trailer tongue facing the road and now it's parallel to the road! 

 Saturday morning we helped our next door neighbors get a tree off their truck.  It dented in the roof, but didn't do any other damage.

Here is Dad's tree that the high winds broke.

Everyone pitched in and helped each other clean up the storm damage.

We only had minor damage.  There were other neighbors that lost barns and a grain bin.

Some of our friends were shingling their house and the storm blew the tar paper off and it literally rained inside their house.  Another neighbor lost a two year old barn.  He witnessed a tornado take the roof off.  This barn is less than a mile from our home. 

The picture below is amazing!  Something hit this grain bin.  The roof of their home will also need to be replaced.  I'm thankful that whatever hit the grain bin didn't hit the house.

While Dean and I were cleaning up, family and friends helped us in different ways.

My son, sister and brother-in-law showed up with chain saws, water, and smiling faces to help with cleanup.

We also had people let us borrow their generators to make things a little easier.

My son caught me crying during cleanup and said "Don't cry Mom--it's only a tree".  He didn't understand.  I shed a few tears because I'm so thankful that people were there to help in our time of need.  I'm also thankful there was no loss of life caused by the storm.  We have a neighboring county that has their entire north/south electric pole that are either pushed over or broken by the wind.  The electric company estimates that it will be July 21 before they get power.  We were only out of power for four days. 

May you all have a wonderful 4th of July!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

P.S.  Jenny--I have your pink work gloves and thanks sis!